Am trying to use "UPDATE NOW" function. Due to bad internet mobile broadband connection the update fails with an error message and hangs. When trying to close, windows automatic "END NOW" kicks in, and upon doing so crashes ZoneAlam, and shuts down VSMON. Immediately after, internet connection is resumed.

Does this mean that with ZoneAlam crashed I am unprotected?
Is this a vulnerability or security issue?

Help us Help you by providing us more information about your computer..

is this aDeskTop, Laptop computer or Netbook;

at kind of Connection to the Internet do you have?

It is Sometimes very Difficult toDiagnose and fix a Computerfrom halfway across the Country, or around the World,without All the Details about your computer it's Software , without our ability to sit in front of your Computer monitor and see what's going on..

The More information you post the more likely users here will be able to understand the issue and try to help.

Also, does your computer meet the Minimum System Resource requirement for Zone Zlarm?

What surprised me was how easy Vsmon was knocked-out. Usually its a tough old bird that will never budge.This is the only incident I have had with ZA, and would still recommend the product it to anyone

Looks like you don't have the minimum requirements to run ZA. You must have a least 1 GIGA of RAM (2 recommended) to run it. As soon as you have some applications/drivers/components starting at boot then RAM for ZA will not be sufficient.

I think also support for XP SP2 has ended at the end of 2011. So, before worrying about shutdown of ZA I would at least update fully XP to SP3 + all patches (several hundreds if not thousands of vulnerabilities has been fixed since). No security tools will be able to protect you if run on an untrusted platform, including ZA.

I would therefore trying to find a security tool that can run on your system (without crashing) and that you can keep fully up-to-date after having updated XP.

Edited the title to better hint to the issue for other users browsing the forum.

Thanks,
Fax
P.S. Its normal if you have physical access to the PC to kill ZA in one way or another :)

Your probably right. XP is knocking on a bit. But all seems to be well, have just updated (05:30 GMT uk time) with the two green ticks. ZA functions exactly as it should do. Have even tested the anti-virus with Eicar, and all with flying colours. Think it was a combination of several things, intermittent internet connection and at a busy time of day etc.